About Me

When?
Started: 1993
Who?
Started with staff and friends from U H S, Chester.
Organiser: Martyn Harris
We walk every Thursday and Saturdays, New Years day and May Day.
How many walk? Walks take place as long as there are at least 2 wanting to walk on that day.
More walk on a Thursday than on a Saturday.
Most ever: 29. Numbers walking: 2-12, and usually about 8 mid-week and 3-4 on Saturday.
Where do we walk?
Saturday:
Anywhere in North and Mid-Wales, Peak District, Shropshire and the Long Mynd and as far North as the Trough of Bowland.
Thursday: Anywhere within about 40 miles of Chester.
Type of walk: Distance: 6 – 14 miles. Climb: up to 4000’ (but usually very much less!).
Those involved in 2017:-
Martyn Harris, Fran Murphy, Sue and Michel Pelissier, Annie Hammond, Sue and Dave Pearson, Mike Dodd, David and Anne Savage, Celia de Mengle, Wendy and Ian Peers, Roger and Margaret Smith, Tim and Carol Dwyer, Paul Collinson, Phil Marsland, Sylvia and Dave Jenkins, Sheila McNee, Ed Meads, Elaine and John Greenhalgh.

Monday, 28 March 2011

Distance:11 miles. Climb: 1800'.
Start: Lay-by opposite the Loggerheads Boundary Monument on the A494 Mold to Ruthin road. Grid ref: SJ202626.
Leave Chester 9-00a.m.
This walk combines two walks from Dave Berry's book "More Walks in the Clwydian Hills". This is another chance to visit the summit of Moel Findeg with its fine views of the Northern Clwydians and across the Cheshire plain to Pekforton and Beeston. Hopefully we will make it as far as the ancient Deborah's well this time.

Saturday 5th March 2011.

Port Penryn, Its Railways and Rivers

and the Grounds of Penryn Castle.

Distance:7-10 miles. Climb: 500+'.

Start: Car park on the right just before the main road bends left to the centre. Grid ref: SH595728.

Leave Chester 8-00a.m.

This walk is taken from a book by Dave Salter and Dave Worrall called £From Mountain Top to Valley Floor". The described walk explores the hinterland behind Penryn Castle. It is hoped to extend the walk by exploring the grounds of Penryn Castle so bring your National Trust Membership Card with you if you are a member.

This walk combines two walks from Dave Berry's book "walks Around Holywell and Halkyn Mountains". This is another chance to explore the area around Ysceifiog using field paths, woodland paths and bridleways. The walk also explores the countryside between the Wheeler Valley and Lixwm.

Saturday 12th March 2011.

Beaumaris and Penmon.

Distance:13 miles. Climb: 1300'.

Start: The car park on the left just past Beaumaris Castle. Grid ref: SH609762.

Leave Chester 8-00a.m.

This walk combines one walk from Carl Roger's book "Coastal Walks Around Anglesey - Volume 1" with a walk from his book "Coastal Walks Around Anglesey - Volume 2" . We enjoyed these walk when we last did it in March 2007. High tide is at 14-50, so it should be possible to walk along the beach for the first part of the walk. This is a good and varied walk, passing Penmon Priory and the site of Castell Aberlleiniog.

Thursday 17th March 2011.

Moel Plas-Yw, the Alyn Valley and Coed Ddu.

Distance:11 miles. Climb: 2000'.

Start: Car park at the Southern side of Moel Arthur. Grid ref: SJ148658.

Leave Chester 9-00a.m.

This walk combines another two walks from Dave Berry's book "More Walks from the Clwydian Hills". The first walk that crosses the slopes of Plas-Yw to the Wheeler Valley is one of my favourite walks in this area. He describes the second walk as a walk that meanders through the attractive and varied countryside between Hendre and Cilcain.

Saturday 19th March 2011.

Wigan Pier and Haigh Country Park.

Distance:9-10 miles. Climb: 500'.

Start: Wigan Pier Car Park. Grid ref: SD579051.

Leave Chester 8-00a.m.

This walk is taken from Terry Marsh's book "Fifty Classic Walks in Lancashire", with an extension to explore the Haigh Country Park and beyond. High Country Park was one of the first to named as a Country Park. The return route is along the towpath of the Leeds - Liverpool Canal. If you're like me and always wondered whether Wigan Pier really existed, then this is a chance to investigate the truth about it. This should be an easy walk, without too many challenges!

This walk combines two walks from Dave Berry's book "Walks in the Vale of Clwyd". We have completed this walk many times before in all sorts of weather conditions. Conditions underfoot have been particularly challenging after lots of rain and the Afon Clwyd is in spate. Hopefully we will see Kingfishers and can confirm Richard and Michel's sightings from last year. In the past we have seen Salmon trying to negotiate "Salmon's Leap" by the sewage works on the Afon Clwyd. Can be muddy.

Saturday 26th March 2011.

Grin Low, Solomon's Tower, The Goyt and Corbar Hill.

Distance:11-12 miles. Climb: 2250'.

Start: Poole's Cavern Car Park, Buxton. Grid ref: SK049725.

Leave Chester 8-00a.m.

This walk combines three walks from Mark Richard's book "White Peak Walks - The Northern Dales". The Solomon's Tower walk is linked to the other two by footpaths through the Pavillion Gardens. Hopefully we will get good views from Solomon's Tower and Corbar Hill this time. The cross on Corbar Hill was destroyed by vandals protesting against the Pope's 2010 visit, but hopefully it will be restored by the time we get there (local people had decided that they wanted to replace the cross as soon as they had raised sufficient funds to do so). A good and varied walk.

Thursday 31st March 2011.

Moel y Gaer, Moel Fammau and the Western Fringes.

Distance:10 miles. Climb: 2000'.

Start: Car park at Bwlch Penbarras. Pay and display (£1 the last time we were there). Grid ref: SJ162606.

Leave Chester 9-00a.m.

This walk combines two walks from Dave Berry's book "Walks on the Clwydian Hills". An opportunity to explore the Western slopes of Moel Fammau before climbing its summit. The return route uses the main path of Offa's Dyke back to Bwlch Penbarras. As this isn't Gordon's favourite hill or path, I thought I'd include it on the list when I knew Gordon wouldn't be walking. An easy start, a stiff climb in the middle and a stroll back to the car. Plenty of opportunity for good views in all directions, if it is clear when we get to the Jubilee Tower.

The walk started with mist still around and we were fearful of not having any views from Solomon's Tower. Thankfully the mist lifted just enough for us to get the views, but distant hills weren't crystal clear to say the least. Temperatures wee on the cool side, although we did get some weak sunshine around lunch time. One member of the group did manage to wear shorts all day, but did have a fleece on before lunch. This varied walk is always good, and today had the advantage that it was pretty dry underfoot.

Lunch was planned to take advantage of the seat by the bird feeding station above Errwood Reservoir, but alas it was already occupied, so we had to take advantage of a broken wall a little further on.

On arriving at the top of Corbar Hill, we found that the cross hasn't yet been replaced. The views were a little clearer by now, but we didn't linger too long as quite a chilling wind was blowing across the top.

What a glorious day for walking this turned out to be. Wall to wall blue skies, sunshine all day and hardly any wind. This was definitely a day to get some colour into white old legs and for once several of the group were brave enough to give it a go! This was probably the best days weather wise and underfoot that we have ever had to complete this circuit. No-one arrived back with muddy boots to clean. Almost all the way round we encountered very new stiles and in some cases new gates under construction and in one point we saw a worker taking away the rickety old stile with a fork lift vehicle.

Spring was in the air with Wood anemone, Lesser celandine, Violets and Primrose all in flower. A few butterflies, including a Peacock were dancing in the warm sunshine. As well as that we had all the bird singing, including Chiffchaff that seemed to be everywhere. There were quite a lot of Common buzzards around too, soaring in the sky on thermals as though they were doing it for fun!

What a privilege it is to be able to walk on days like this. As near to a perfect walk as you are likely to get!

Almost a perfect day for walking with mainly blue skies and pleasantly warm sunshine. Good dry conditions underfoot until we had to go through fields beyond Fern Hill with very potent smelling muck spreading still going on, and even careful walking around the edge of the field left us with somewhat smelly boots! New Alderley Edge by-pass had been built since the last time that we did this walk, but thankfully there is superb new footbridge to cross once it is open to public use.

A very pleasant 10 minutes or so was enjoyed having afternoon fruit tea, sitting in the grounds of Nether Alderley church basking in the sunshine. Alas the mill is no longer open to view except for groups, so we just had to continue up the road to Bradford Lane and back to the car.

Things didn't start too well when we couldn't find the Trenchfield Mill Car Park and ended parking in the Mona Street car park in the city centre and to the cost of Mike's pocket to the tune of £6-50!

However there was a bonus, it was just round the corner from the Anvil.

What another glorious day this turned out to be for walking, definitely a shorts day and the Sun shining for most of the day.

After crossing the Leeds-Liverpool canal by the Orwell public house, we didn't look at the route description or the map and we turned left along the towpath instead of right! this meant that we did the first part of the walk as far as Haigh Hall in the opposite direction to that described. However id did have the advantage that we went past the DW stadium before any of the football fans arriving to see Wigan beat Birmingham!

We were all impressed with the length of the miniature railway that went through the grounds of Haigh Hall, it's a pity that it wasn't running!

The return route back to Wigan Pier was all the way along the towpath, not too challenging in terms of route finding. In terms of seeing other people, tis was one of the most popular walks that we have been on for some time. Overall a good walk and we were back a the car before 3 p.m.!

We set off from the start below Moel Arthur in bright sunshine and at least one of us in short sleeves and no fleece! Thankfully the forecast rain didn't materialize, although there was a little dampness in the air just after lunch, but waterproofs weren't really the order of the day!

The first suggested lunch spot was rejected as being in a windy spot, the final spot wasn't much better in that we were spread out so much that Roger did quite a bit more mileage than most just giving out Welsh cakes to everyone. I blame Margaret for making the Welsh cakes so good that I forgot to tune into the radio to get the latest cricket score and even gave Gordon more that 20 minutes for lunch! Thank you Margaret, these were the best Welsh cakes ever.

Overall this was a wonderfully varied walk, a little bit up and down, and especially up about a mile before the end, and after the mist had cleared good views were enjoyed.

Dave and Roger (the deviants), did a little extra by diverting to the top of Moel Arthur as well (an extra 200' of climb or so)!

Weather not quite as good as forecast, although the rain that we got was never enough to wet us and the wind was quite cool and the Sun had gone AWOL all day!

The tide was out, so we walked along the beach as much as we could on the way to Penmon from Beaumaris. This route wasn't easy going, but at least it kept us off the roads. Lunch was taken at |Penmon Point, looking out across the bay to Puffin Island. During lunch we were fortunate to see several seals, including both a Common seal and a Grey seal. In addition we had superb views of a Shag diving and catching a fish, Guillemots flying and five Eider ducks flying and settling on the sea.

The highlight of the day was visiting Castell Aberlleiniog after its renovation in 2007/2008.

A good walk overall, especially with the new circular paths from Llangoed Castell Aberlleiniog.

On the way home we had several mobile phone messages, a little surprising since neither Tito or Michel were on the walk!
After walk drinks were enjoyed at the Britannia Inn at Halkyn, where once again the Lees bitter revived at two member of the group!

Group: Martyn, Roger, Gordon, Sue and Michel, Phil, Fran, Sylvia and Dave J. (We had hoped that Richard would have joined us on this walk starting on his doorstep).

This was one of those days, what shall I wear? I don't think anyone really got it right. Temperatures predicted to feel as low as 2 Celsius with showers too, most of ended up overheating and grateful whenever we were exposed to the cooling wind! Thankfully we only had a five minute shower with less than a mile to go, and most of us didn't even stop to put waterproofs on.

This walk has in the past presented us with very muddy boots to clean at the end of the day, but today even the muddy sections were dry! However one or two awkward stiles remained to challenge us. Just before lunch we had a very interesting chat with a local man trying to sort out a hedge that he had reckoned had been neglected for more than 70 years. He explained to us how he could layer the hedge in places, but had to cut other sections down to the ground, and with more light available the hedgerow flowers would be out in force later in the year. Perhaps we need to do the walk again, but not for another year!

During the walk we had been talking about the total number of different birds that we would see during the year, and commented on the fact that we had never heard or seen an owl. Quite ironically as we were going through the wood,Waen dymarch, both Michel and I clearly heard a female Tawny owl calling.

This turned out to be a really good day for walking, another day that could have been a shorts day, not too hot and not too cold and warm sunshine at times including while we had lunch. We certainly had better eather than the Carneddau were getting, the clouds/mist on the high tops didn't shift all day.We started the walk from Bangor, but the walk description started at Port Penryn. We tried to take a path through a small park, but we ended up where we started, but it did give Sue and Dave time to catch up with us having spotted us from the car park. The walk started well with some good bird watching in the bay and around Port Penryn before heading off down the old railway track to Tregarth. The walk was extended by walking through the grounds of Penryn Castle, giving us the opportunity to see our first splash of Welsh daffodils in bloom.

We arrived back at the car, a few of us with tired legs, after Mike had set a cracking pace for much of the walk!